" I see the POTUS driving over 300 miles in a limo every week."
The Presidential Limo isn't designed for every week. Its primary design goal is to protect the President, which the primary mode of doing so is moving the President as far away from danger as fast as possible (electric cars can only do one of those).
That means not transferring to Marine One or Airforce One. That means way more power usage than current low-density battery technology can provide. That means being able to work in the many scenarios where electrical systems fail.
"I'm fairly certain the current Beast is not HEMP protected. It's solidly constructed, but it doesn't have copper knife-edge seals and a complete faraday cage around all of its electrical and electronic components."
No, it's a diesel. Always has been.
Doesn't need to protect electronics to keep power going to the wheels. Unlike an electric. And really, that is the only system that matters when push comes to shove. Everything else is mechanical or accessory.
Well, the simple fact is that until the energy density problem is solved, electric vehicles, no matter who the manufacturer, will be a massive compromise with ICE vehicles.
You get to choose between power (acceleration, not speed) and range, when compared to ICEs. And that isn't even bringing up the problem of refueling (which is less of a problem since there are multiple 'Beasts' as backup).
The USSS won't be jumping on "we can get away from a trap, bomb, shootout, blockade, whatever, but can't make it to our safe destination" anytime soon.
Give the technology a few more decades, and maybe then it will compete. But given how ICEs have improved in the last decade, maybe not.
Those are just idiots. My threshold for dying inside is when research institutions start claiming that AGW is causing temperature increases in the mantle, and is causing increases in volcano activity as a result, enough that it could put our future in danger.
You are clueless, and clearly have no idea about what kinds of things get classified.
For example, say we hand over the specs and signatures for the subs carrying our nuclear deterrents (MIRVs). As it is, any aggressor has no idea where those subs are, what they sound like, their physical limits or their capabilities for detecting threats. If you hand that information over, suddenly, the entire sub fleet becomes useless. Defeats the purpose of being hidden.
Now, that is a fundamental part of MAD and our second-strike capability. Not something that can just be hand-waved away to be "we should just be so strong to not need secrets". We'd bankrupt the country chasing that pipe dream, and still be no better off, given we'd be footing the bill for decades of technology and handing it over, for free, to any interested enemy.
Stealth is another good example. The only countries developing stealth aircraft other than us, were countries that stole the technology or were able to examine downed stealth aircraft we had designed. That advantage gave us at least 3 decades of air superiority, and could have been more. That is a major cost savings and powerful tool compared to building a massively more expensive army to compensate for the lack of that technological superiority(yes, I known we already have a massively expensive army).
Both of you are wrong. Supercomputer modeling and number dowsing have conclusively proven that the perturbation will cause an E.L.E. boloid strike exactly matching the Mayan prophecy of doom on December 23rd, 2012. They knew this sacred knowledge because they could astral travel using advanced alien technology and actually SEE the dark matter vortex waves.
No, no more than they have a duty to do anything else immoral ( like slave labor in China or dumping waste in some poor country with few environmental regulations ) to boost profits. Their duty to shareholders comes after acting ethically.
And it is unethical. If only those wealthy enough to set up shell corporations and make imaginary tax evasion schemes can participate in evading taxes, but those that can't are forced in the burden of taxation, despite the expectation of the law to be that every company or entity be taxed.
If you accept that there is a duty for all to be subject to the same tax law, which I think we all do (regardless your perspective of tax evasion), then abusing a loophole to keep from paying taxes violates Kant's FUL, and is therefore also logically unethical if you follow Kantian ethics. For Utilitarians, I am sure you could make the argument that the tax evaded dollars serve the evaders far less than the good taxation does for Australia, but I don't follow that regime.
You are right, which is the fundamental problem with it, right now, and the reason why it is floating on such an enormous bubble. Until it stops being speculated, it won't be stable, and if it isn't stable, it won't be a practical currency, and if it isn't a practical currency, it is subject to speculation. That is the cycle that is keeping prices high, and once the trigger is big enough, (or someone starts dumping the currency, which there are lots able to) the cycle will reverse. And it will reverse, given how many people were throwing their money into it thinking BTC would keep climbing to 10k-100k/coin, not thinking about the what a 1T total value digital currency would mean. And then, 'hey, I put real dollars into digidollars and ended up with way fewer real dollars that I can buy stuff with', crash ensues.
Madoff is an excellent example of why handing your money to an individual or small group (just like the ameteurs at Mt. Gox) to keep in your trust is an awful idea. Real banks, the ones with experience not losing all of your money or that are regulated and insured by the U.S. gov't, by comparison, are stable, secure, and at least reliable enough for an economy to run on.
A better question might be, "How could this possibly be furthering out national security interests?", and if it isn't, "Why the hell are they wasting my money on programs designed to further their own egomaniacal agenda?".
I mean, isn't this self-serving and public-harming behavior exactly what got them in to hot water in the first place?
Frankly, if they still don't get that abusing the hand that feeds them tax dollars isn't in America's best interest, then they don't deserve to be an organization. Let the CIA and FBI pick up their responsibilities and disolve the NSA altogether. They are a waste of money, a waste of manpower, and are wasting our liberties.
At the time of the 6th car fire from an accident, there had been a total of 56 total documented accidents with the Tesla Model S, or 1/9 chance in an accident, the car would burst into flames. Compared to the average vehicle, which is about a 1/21 chance.
And, at that same time, the Tesla Model S's, on average, were being driven about 1/4 as much as normal petrol powered cars.
That's about 9x more frequently per vehicle mile, and about 2.3x more frequently per accident.
Sorry to hurt your feelings, but at the time of the 6th car fire from an accident, there had been a total of 56 total documented accidents with the Tesla Model S, or 1/9 chance in an accident, the car would burst into flames. Compared to the average vehicle, which is about a 1/21 chance.
And, at that same time, the Tesla Model S's, on average, were being driven about 1/4 as much as normal petrol powered cars.
That's about 9x more frequently per vehicle mile, and about 2.3x more frequently per accident.
Not quite an order of magnitude, but pretty darn significant for a $70k car.
By untested, they mean the most heavily tested and researched suit ever designed. Just this is the first time the athletes had raced in them in a competition, and apparently with a manufacturing defect that UnderArmor has admitted to. Why Lockheed Martin (involved in R&D) was made the brunt of jokes, I have no idea.
"Though coverage of the latter was disproportionate to the coverage of fires in other types of vehicle.)"
Because the number of fires was disproportionate to the number of accidents and vehicle miles driven, and last I checked, by over an order of magnitude.
But don't let that stop fanbois from spinning irrelevant statistics to try to show otherwise.
Let's be reasonable here... you are extrapolating 1400 years into the future based on a few decades of high human population growth, which is already curtailing.
What I am worried about is when hydrogen powered vehicles don't leak... Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen from the air into water vapor, but water vapor is a far more potent greenhouse gas than methane or CO2. Seems to me that making a energy storage medium that converts water in liquid form to water in vapor form would do way more harm than good.
Countries with engineering expertise, like Germany, any of the Norse countries, Japan, Taiwan, I could go on...
Thing about China is that their primary focus (permeates all of their culture) is to maintain high appearances even if everything underneath is complete crap. A good anecdote and analogy for this are their prize schools, which from the outside look like something you'd find in Abu Dhabi, but inside are literally falling apart and are a safety hazard to students.
With that in mind, if the Chinese are saying it is 'awake' with control abnormalities, I'd guess in reality it is about 5x worse than they claim.
Typically, professional thieves care about what they can unload the devices for and how easily/quickly they can, not the sticker price. That means Craigslist/EBay demand, for someone in the chain.
Glass is definitely a high target item being that it has been on the news, is in high demand, and is small/concealable.
I think that would require you to be pretty pedantic to accept. If Death Caps are native only to one small environment in Europe, but have spread in recent years into 90% of the continent, that would still make it an invasive species in most of Europe, though technically not for the arbitrary boundaries defining the continent.
The idea that this will ever be used in benefit of citizens is laughable. With all of the facial recognition and data aggregation apps coming down the pipe, this is just an easy-button to turn the benign into "probable cause".
Fortunately, I don't think wearing Shemaghs is illegal in NYC, though it may be when the PC PPansies start pissing themselves when everyman walking down the street "looks like a terrorist".
Slashdot Mirror
" I see the POTUS driving over 300 miles in a limo every week."
The Presidential Limo isn't designed for every week. Its primary design goal is to protect the President, which the primary mode of doing so is moving the President as far away from danger as fast as possible (electric cars can only do one of those).
That means not transferring to Marine One or Airforce One. That means way more power usage than current low-density battery technology can provide. That means being able to work in the many scenarios where electrical systems fail.
"I'm fairly certain the current Beast is not HEMP protected. It's solidly constructed, but it doesn't have copper knife-edge seals and a complete faraday cage around all of its electrical and electronic components."
No, it's a diesel. Always has been.
Doesn't need to protect electronics to keep power going to the wheels. Unlike an electric. And really, that is the only system that matters when push comes to shove. Everything else is mechanical or accessory.
Well, the simple fact is that until the energy density problem is solved, electric vehicles, no matter who the manufacturer, will be a massive compromise with ICE vehicles.
You get to choose between power (acceleration, not speed) and range, when compared to ICEs. And that isn't even bringing up the problem of refueling (which is less of a problem since there are multiple 'Beasts' as backup).
The USSS won't be jumping on "we can get away from a trap, bomb, shootout, blockade, whatever, but can't make it to our safe destination" anytime soon.
Give the technology a few more decades, and maybe then it will compete. But given how ICEs have improved in the last decade, maybe not.
Those are just idiots. My threshold for dying inside is when research institutions start claiming that AGW is causing temperature increases in the mantle, and is causing increases in volcano activity as a result, enough that it could put our future in danger.
You are clueless, and clearly have no idea about what kinds of things get classified.
For example, say we hand over the specs and signatures for the subs carrying our nuclear deterrents (MIRVs). As it is, any aggressor has no idea where those subs are, what they sound like, their physical limits or their capabilities for detecting threats. If you hand that information over, suddenly, the entire sub fleet becomes useless. Defeats the purpose of being hidden.
Now, that is a fundamental part of MAD and our second-strike capability. Not something that can just be hand-waved away to be "we should just be so strong to not need secrets". We'd bankrupt the country chasing that pipe dream, and still be no better off, given we'd be footing the bill for decades of technology and handing it over, for free, to any interested enemy.
Stealth is another good example. The only countries developing stealth aircraft other than us, were countries that stole the technology or were able to examine downed stealth aircraft we had designed. That advantage gave us at least 3 decades of air superiority, and could have been more. That is a major cost savings and powerful tool compared to building a massively more expensive army to compensate for the lack of that technological superiority(yes, I known we already have a massively expensive army).
They don't need to buy the cars for a 3 year job. They need to maintain existing cars.
Both of you are wrong. Supercomputer modeling and number dowsing have conclusively proven that the perturbation will cause an E.L.E. boloid strike exactly matching the Mayan prophecy of doom on December 23rd, 2012. They knew this sacred knowledge because they could astral travel using advanced alien technology and actually SEE the dark matter vortex waves.
Just wait and see.
No, no more than they have a duty to do anything else immoral ( like slave labor in China or dumping waste in some poor country with few environmental regulations ) to boost profits. Their duty to shareholders comes after acting ethically.
And it is unethical. If only those wealthy enough to set up shell corporations and make imaginary tax evasion schemes can participate in evading taxes, but those that can't are forced in the burden of taxation, despite the expectation of the law to be that every company or entity be taxed.
If you accept that there is a duty for all to be subject to the same tax law, which I think we all do (regardless your perspective of tax evasion), then abusing a loophole to keep from paying taxes violates Kant's FUL, and is therefore also logically unethical if you follow Kantian ethics. For Utilitarians, I am sure you could make the argument that the tax evaded dollars serve the evaders far less than the good taxation does for Australia, but I don't follow that regime.
Self-contradiction
You are right, which is the fundamental problem with it, right now, and the reason why it is floating on such an enormous bubble. Until it stops being speculated, it won't be stable, and if it isn't stable, it won't be a practical currency, and if it isn't a practical currency, it is subject to speculation. That is the cycle that is keeping prices high, and once the trigger is big enough, (or someone starts dumping the currency, which there are lots able to) the cycle will reverse. And it will reverse, given how many people were throwing their money into it thinking BTC would keep climbing to 10k-100k/coin, not thinking about the what a 1T total value digital currency would mean. And then, 'hey, I put real dollars into digidollars and ended up with way fewer real dollars that I can buy stuff with', crash ensues.
Madoff is an excellent example of why handing your money to an individual or small group (just like the ameteurs at Mt. Gox) to keep in your trust is an awful idea. Real banks, the ones with experience not losing all of your money or that are regulated and insured by the U.S. gov't, by comparison, are stable, secure, and at least reliable enough for an economy to run on.
A better question might be, "How could this possibly be furthering out national security interests?", and if it isn't, "Why the hell are they wasting my money on programs designed to further their own egomaniacal agenda?".
I mean, isn't this self-serving and public-harming behavior exactly what got them in to hot water in the first place?
Frankly, if they still don't get that abusing the hand that feeds them tax dollars isn't in America's best interest, then they don't deserve to be an organization. Let the CIA and FBI pick up their responsibilities and disolve the NSA altogether. They are a waste of money, a waste of manpower, and are wasting our liberties.
Or... tendon.
At the time of the 6th car fire from an accident, there had been a total of 56 total documented accidents with the Tesla Model S, or 1/9 chance in an accident, the car would burst into flames. Compared to the average vehicle, which is about a 1/21 chance.
And, at that same time, the Tesla Model S's, on average, were being driven about 1/4 as much as normal petrol powered cars.
That's about 9x more frequently per vehicle mile, and about 2.3x more frequently per accident.
Sorry to hurt your feelings, but at the time of the 6th car fire from an accident, there had been a total of 56 total documented accidents with the Tesla Model S, or 1/9 chance in an accident, the car would burst into flames. Compared to the average vehicle, which is about a 1/21 chance.
And, at that same time, the Tesla Model S's, on average, were being driven about 1/4 as much as normal petrol powered cars.
That's about 9x more frequently per vehicle mile, and about 2.3x more frequently per accident.
Not quite an order of magnitude, but pretty darn significant for a $70k car.
By untested, they mean the most heavily tested and researched suit ever designed. Just this is the first time the athletes had raced in them in a competition, and apparently with a manufacturing defect that UnderArmor has admitted to. Why Lockheed Martin (involved in R&D) was made the brunt of jokes, I have no idea.
"Though coverage of the latter was disproportionate to the coverage of fires in other types of vehicle.)"
Because the number of fires was disproportionate to the number of accidents and vehicle miles driven, and last I checked, by over an order of magnitude.
But don't let that stop fanbois from spinning irrelevant statistics to try to show otherwise.
40% of Americans don't care enough about astrology or astronomy to learn the difference.
That is probably most accurate.
"Showing no signs of easing up"
Let's be reasonable here... you are extrapolating 1400 years into the future based on a few decades of high human population growth, which is already curtailing.
What I am worried about is when hydrogen powered vehicles don't leak... Fuel cells convert hydrogen and oxygen from the air into water vapor, but water vapor is a far more potent greenhouse gas than methane or CO2. Seems to me that making a energy storage medium that converts water in liquid form to water in vapor form would do way more harm than good.
Countries with engineering expertise, like Germany, any of the Norse countries, Japan, Taiwan, I could go on...
Thing about China is that their primary focus (permeates all of their culture) is to maintain high appearances even if everything underneath is complete crap. A good anecdote and analogy for this are their prize schools, which from the outside look like something you'd find in Abu Dhabi, but inside are literally falling apart and are a safety hazard to students.
With that in mind, if the Chinese are saying it is 'awake' with control abnormalities, I'd guess in reality it is about 5x worse than they claim.
You mean, half his job with a quarter the ability and a tenth the ethics and care, for half the salary.
Typically, professional thieves care about what they can unload the devices for and how easily/quickly they can, not the sticker price. That means Craigslist/EBay demand, for someone in the chain.
Glass is definitely a high target item being that it has been on the news, is in high demand, and is small/concealable.
I think that would require you to be pretty pedantic to accept. If Death Caps are native only to one small environment in Europe, but have spread in recent years into 90% of the continent, that would still make it an invasive species in most of Europe, though technically not for the arbitrary boundaries defining the continent.
"Compel cops"
The idea that this will ever be used in benefit of citizens is laughable. With all of the facial recognition and data aggregation apps coming down the pipe, this is just an easy-button to turn the benign into "probable cause".
Fortunately, I don't think wearing Shemaghs is illegal in NYC, though it may be when the PC PPansies start pissing themselves when everyman walking down the street "looks like a terrorist".